School-to-Prison Pipeline Closed in Mississippi

A Justice Department agreement will decrease excessive suspensions and expulsions of mostly young black students for trivial infractions like wearing the wrong colored socks, says Brentin Mock in Colorlines.

Colorlines' Brentin Mock says a Justice Department agreement will decrease excessive suspensions and expulsions of mostly young black students for trivial infractions like wearing the wrong colored socks.

The sealing of the school-to-prison pipeline in Meridian, Miss. has officially started after a U.S. District Court judge approved what the Department of Justice is calling "a landmark consent decree" that features a "far-reaching plan to reform discipline practices ... that unlawfully channel black students out of their classrooms and, too often, into the criminal justice system.

In March, the Justice Department reached agreement with the Meridian Public School District to decrease excessive suspensions and expulsions of mostly young black students for trivial infractions like wearing the wrong colored socks. Kids were lucky if they were only suspended — in many of these cases, schools called the police to arrest the students, as young as 10 years old, and send them to juvenile facilities, as reporter Julianne Hing found last November.

This consent decree essentially cancels most, if not all, police intervention for any issues that can be "safely and appropriately handled under school disciplinary procedures." This includes: disorderly conduct, school disturbances and disruptions, loitering, trespassing, profanity, dress code violations, and fighting that doesn’t include physical injury or weapons.

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